Paycheck (short story)

Payday ( original English title paycheck ) is a short story by the American science-fiction author Philip K. Dick. She next appeared in the journal Imagination in 1953 and has been included in numerous collections of short stories. Payday one of the classics of Dick and served as a model for the eponymous film Paycheck - Billing from the year 2003.

Content

Engineer Jennings returns from a two-year contract for the company Rethrick Constructions home. However, he does not know what he has done in that time. The basis of the contractual agreement that the two years erased from his memory. In the headquarters, he expects the reward, but must realize that he has probably decided otherwise during his working hours. Instead of the money he receives from Secretary Kelly only a bag of seven small objects: a code key, a ticket residue, a package list, fine wire, a broken in half poker chip, a piece of green cloth and a bus ticket.

Immediately after his leaving the company building the security police arrests him. She wants to find out what Jennings has done in the two years and where he has been staying. Jennings knows about it but nothing. He manages to escape from the police car with the help of the wire. In road traffic, he saves himself from his pursuers on a bus. There he helps the bus ticket from the bag, to be accepted as a passenger by the robot Schaffner.

Jennings now wants to find himself where he was and what he did for Rethrick Constructions. He realizes that he has built a device for the company with which you look to the future bring ( a so-called time mirror ) and objects from the future into the present ( time bucket) can. The things out of the bags are such objects from the future. During his time at Rethrick he gave himself these items concerned from the future to plan his actions after leaving the company. In the present day, however, he does not know because of his memory erased when the objects are used.

Jennings finds the hiding place of Rethrick, a gated community in Iowa. He manages to penetrate with the help of the objects in the system and to photograph the device. With the images he wants to blackmail Rethrick, to make him a partner. Jennings feels dominated by the secret police society is not safe and sound, so he wants to enter one of the companies. Business enterprises are in fact areas in which the secret police has no influence. However, Jennings does not want an engineer to Rethrick back, but with the top companies.

Order for the photos of the Security Police do not fall into the hands of Jennings passes the papers to Kelly for safekeeping. In an interview with Rethrick this reveals the meaning of his secret organization: Rethrick Corporations want to support ordinary people, if they even rebel against the security police. A participation of Jennings is out for him, as the company will only be in his family. Since Kelly turns out to be the daughter of Rethrick, Jennings missing the photos to accomplish a plan. But Jennings has another object as a trump card: a transaction slip for a package task, which presumably are the photos. He shows this Kelly, the same pulls out of his pocket. At this moment vibrates the room, and out of nowhere wrests one belonging to a time bucket gripper Kelly the note. Now Jennings has only the document and thus access to the photos. Rethrick and Kelly agree that Jennings can become a partner. Since Kelly and Jennings are inclined to each other, everything could stay in the family.